The Way of Life
April 21, 2024
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Last week, Pastor Ron began our new sermon series, Awake, O Sleeper: Walking as Children of Light in a World Darkened by Lies. The title comes broadly from themes in Ephesians 5 and more narrowly from 5:14, which says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” This verse speaks to the danger of being asleep to the things of God and the wonder of being awake to the things of God.
It’s helpful to note that, the things Paul wants to say in this letter, he’s not gone to some street corner in Ephesus to preach open air, to preach to the lost and hostile people of the world. Through this letter, he’s brought his message into a church where many, if not most, of those in the church already are Christians. That’s what he calls them in the letter’s introduction. He says, “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus” (1:2). To call them saints and to call them faithful is Paul’s ordinary way of calling them Christians. Yet he wants these Christians, it seems, to be awake, not sleepy.
To bring it close, we might say Paul is not going to downtown Harrisburg, standing on the steps of the Capital, or standing outside a Senators game on City Island and preaching to those passing by. Paul has come to the church. He’s come, we might even say, to Community, warning a group of people where many are already Christians. Yet he says what he says to us because he doesn’t want us to be asleep at the wheel. Let’s pray for his waking as we look at these words.
“Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
Each week in this sermon series, we’ll be talking about particular lies we’re prone to believe. Last week, Pastor Ron talked about the lie that our best life, our most fulfilled life, is experienced when we primarily look inside our hearts to find our deepest desires—and then, no matter the cost, we live out of whatever we perceive to be inside.
Ron had a lot more to say about that, but there are several reasons the approach of looking within doesn’t work, one of them has to do with our passage this morning and another lie we’re prone to believe. We’re prone to believe the lie that our human nature is basically pretty good.
Over the course of the series, we’ll talk about all sorts of issues. We’ll talk about some related to sexuality, race and ethnicity, the family, and marriage. And perhaps even as I mention these sorts of topics in shorthand, you can start to feel something like, Oh yeah, those are pretty charged issues in our culture. Those might be sensitive topics. And they.
The question of human nature is just as explosive. And the lie is so entrenched among us that the average person in churches like ours believes in our fundamental goodness at about the same rate as the average American. I say that based on a survey called The State of Theology. Lifeway Research and Ligonier Ministries asked a few thousand people a bunch of questions about their beliefs. I’ll zero in on statement 15: “Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.” The latest survey says that 71% of Americans believe that everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God. The survey also says that 65% of evangelical Christians believe everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.
I don’t know how you’d answer the question about human nature. I’m going to assume that many of you would answer the same way many in the survey answered: You don’t think our natural born state is fallen and guilty before God, but rather that people are born innocent and basically good.
I’ll tell you upfront that this is not the view of the Bible. I would bet that many of you know this and even many of you believe what the Bible says. Yet of those who know the Bible teaches this, let’s just say that if you were taking an anonymous survey where you knew your pastor wasn’t watching, you’d admit you’re really not all that keen on the idea. In fact, you’re even a little squeamish about it, and you’d be very happy to leave such an insulting view behind.
So, here’s my aim: I want to show you what the Bible says about our humanity and why it’s actually better for us to believe it—that is, why what the Bible says about sinful humanity is actually the way of life.
1. What is our human nature?
Let’s start with the first point: What is our human nature? I’ll reread vv. 1–3.
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Quite the passage, isn’t it? It’s stunning language: dead and trespasses and sins and following the world and following the prince of the power of the air (meaning following satan or the devil) and being sons (and daughters) of disobedience and carrying out the passion of flesh and desires and children of wrath. What a passage. Paul does not describe sin as “messing up” and “mistakes” and “oops” and “my bad.” His description is a nature far more sweeping and total.
In theological terms, we might summarize this as saying the Bible has a “low anthropology.” This means humans are bent toward sin and are dead to the things of God, rather than naturally good and alive. This is why, apart from God’s saving action, we are not only sleepy but dead.
Another theological phrase that’s often used is total depravity. That phrase can be misleading, so I’ll explain. Total depravity doesn’t mean that humans are as bad as we could be, that we are totally as bad as we could possibly be. Not at all. People could be worse. You could be worse. I could be worse. Total depravity means two things. First, it means that apart from God’s saving work, we are dead to him and unable to do anything to earn his favor. That’s the first part. We are dead. Which is just what the passage says. There’s a second part. Total depravity means that every part of us is touched by sin, that even the good works we do are mixed. I’ll give an example.
I’m preaching right now, and, yeah, I want to do that as well as I can to honor the Word of God; I want to preach as well as I can to bless God’s people and give a clear presentation of the gospel so we call can enjoy the living Jesus forever. But also, deep down, I want you to like me. And if I do a good job, you’ll pat me on that back. That’s what I mean by mixed motives and total depravity.
To be sure, this passage doesn’t say everything that the Bible says about our humanity. We haven’t talked about being made in the image of God. That’s also an important truth. If this were a sermon on all that the Bible says, we’d have to talk more about that.
As we focus here, we see the passage use language of walking. The image that comes to mind is that of an airport’s moving walkway. You’ve probably seen those. They are like escalators except on flat ground. This passage pictures humans walking in a direction away from God but doing so in a crowd of people and with the floor also moving under our feet so that it’s almost like our sin is accelerated. It’s a bleak picture. How could this view of our human nature be better for us to believe? Let’s talk about that.
2. Why is it better to believe in our total depravity?
I’ll start by giving a few answers to why believing in our total depravity is better than understanding humans as good and innocent in God’s eyes. I’ll give a few reasons from this part of the passage, and then we’ll end by talking about vv. 4–10.
1. … so that we won’t be continually surprised.
First off, believing in the Bible’s view of our human nature means we don’t have to be continually surprised by the badness of the world or the badness within you or the badness that yet remains even in the visible church. There is a kind of perpetual shock and outrage that is a staple of entertainment news. It goes something like, “Can you believe how sinful and stupid so and so is? Can you believe how dumb this group or that group is?” This shock and surprise even get monetized. Your outrage and shock get manipulated into more shock and outrage. I don’t like to be manipulated. Neither do you. Having the biblical view of humanity helps us not be in continual shock.
2. … so that we can be more sympathetic to others and ourselves.
Here’s another reason having a low anthropology helps us. It helps us be more sympathetic to others and to ourselves. Don’t misunderstand my words. I don’t mean to say that we should be more excusing of sin. That’s not what I said. I don’t mean we should be more tolerant of what Jesus hates and what hurts others (Rev. 2:6). But I do think the proper view of human nature helps us be more compassionate. I’ll explain.
In a letter written by the apostle John, he spoke of the threefold influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil. This passage is Paul’s way of speaking to the same three. Look at the wording in v. 2 again. “in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” World, flesh, and devil.
The Bible doesn’t teach that we can claim, “The devil made me do it,” and God won’t hold us responsible. God holds us responsible. But it is helpful to know that when we encounter deep patterns of sin in ourselves and others, more is going on than merely human badness. Think again of that walkway illustration. There is our own fleshly desires that want to move one way, but there is also the pressure of the crowded world walking the same direction. It’s hard to move against a crowd. You can do it, but at a minimum, it is slow going. And if the influence of satan is like the moving walkway, then even when you’re standing still, you’re still being influenced and moving.
For my part, this view of humanity helps me not go crazy. To just be more tansparent, I’ll tell you that March was a terrible month. Some of you know I have issues with food allergies, and they have been going bonkers for the last four months. I’ve started seeing doctors again. In March we had several financial hits, normal stuff like car issues, school bills, and surprises with our taxes. I had some conflicts in different settings, and we had several health challenges around us that looked scary at first. Thankfully, in the end, they proved not to be scary. But you get the picture. I was going crazy, thinking What in the world is wrong with me? What am I doing wrong?
A friend heard about some of this and sent a text and said something like, “Hey, praying for you; it’s crazy what’s going on; Satan is out there, and I’m praying.” And literally, in all the hurt and sorrow and conflict and bills, I had just sort of forgotten the Bible. I’m a pastor who is supposed to know the Bible, and I had just assumed everything wrong could be explained by my sin or someone else’s. And that’s not true. The complete view of our humanity helps me stay sane. Let’s keep going.
3. … so that our evangelistic zeal isn’t dulled.
Believing in total depravity helps maintain our zeal for evangelism, particularly toward those who seem to be moral and already experiencing a good life. To see this, I’ll need to point out something very specific from these verses. Notice the pronouns Paul uses. First, look at vv. 1–2 with me.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked . . .”
He speaks of “you” twice. You are like this. You are like that.
Then look at v. 3 again.
“among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Paul uses “we.” He includes himself when he speaks of the passions of the sinful flesh.
Do you know how Paul, the author of this letter describes his life before he was a Christian? You’ve never met someone as scrupulous about obedience and rules and morals as Paul. In his own words, he was a Pharisee of Pharisees (see Phil. 3 and Acts 23). No one was more religious than Paul.
Why is that interesting? What does it have to do with the pronouns you and we? And what does it have to do with a Christian’s evangelistic zeal? Look at it like this. Sure, if someone is on drugs and womanizing and leads a gang and hurts children and, you know, lives a wild and crazy life, then, sure, that person needs Jesus, we think. But someone who is moral and clean cut and trying to earn their way to God by their good deeds and has the proper political views that align with the Bible, then they’re not really dead in their sins, are they? Their good works are, you know, better before a holy God. Maybe a person like this just needs a little Jesus to make their life a little better?
Do you see what I’m getting at? This is not the view of the passage. That way of thinking kills zeal for evangelism. One reason you don’t tell people about Jesus is because you’re afraid of what others think. That’s only part of the issue. The other issue, perhaps the main issue, is that you don’t really think all people are dead in their trespasses and sins and are children of wrath. Your clean-cut, neighbor who votes the same as you and is against abortion and helps at a homeless shelter and watches her grandkids during the week will go to hell unless God’s forgiveness is given to that person through faith in the death of Christ because we can never earn what can only be given. Maybe you are “that neighbor” and you are the one who needs to know that you can’t stand before God, holding up your moral goodness and telling God to let you into heaven. It doesn’t work that. We all, Paul writes, need Jesus to make us alive. Do you see why this is so charged?
Which brings me to my last point. If we are really this dead and this sinful, then God must be really gracious. And that’s exactly what we see in the rest of the passage.
3. What is the best results of believing in our total depravity?
Look with me at vv. 4–10.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We have a joke among our preaching team that every week we all want to say, “There’s more here than I can cover.” Because I tease the guys about it, we’ve all tried to stop saying the phrase in our sermons. Saying “there’s more I could say” is sort of a preacher-ism to make us feel important that we can say a lot and also it helps us not get criticized for not covering something. But note that this passage literally says it cannot be covered in a quick summary. I’ll read vv. 6–7 again.
[God made us alive with Christ] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
We can’t exhaust the in eternity the grace of God. It’s like your favorite book or show or movie that you can watch over and over and each time enjoy it more. It’s like that only far better.
And look how God and his love and his mercy and his grace are described. In v. 4 we read of “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us.” God just doesn’t show mercy; he’s rich in mercy. And he doesn’t just love us, he has great love. And then in v. 7 we read of the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us. Then we read that after walking according to the course of this world, God makes us his workmanship, preparing us for good works and to walk in.
So, in summary, the best reason to believe in low anthropology and believe in total depravity is so that we can appreciate the enormity of grace. I think this is part of why, as I pointed out at the very start, Paul says this to Christians. Remember, this is not Paul’s manuscript from open-air preaching in downtown Ephesus. What we have here is a letter to believers reminding them of what they once were so that they can appreciate, in Christ, what they now are.
“You were dead,” Paul writes. And “you once walked.” And “we all once lived.” These are past tense. And then we come to v. 4! “But God!” Paul writes. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive.”
I think about the phrase “so that no one can boast.” Around the church, I think we know enough to know that boasting is bad and pride is bad. We know enough not to boast that we save ourselves. But consider a related sin we are guilty of: smugness.
I don’t know all the reasons many Christians become smug. Perhaps it’s because of legitimate disgust at the sins of the world. Perhaps because we forget that we, too, were dead in our sins. Maybe Christians too often simply replace unrespectable sins like swearing with respectable sins like greed and workaholism. Maybe there are other reasons we tend to become smug and condescending toward the world.
But what ever the reasons, God wants something better for us—for you. He wants you to know the joy of your salvation. Only a right view of our humanity will lead to a right view of salvation. And only a right view of our humanity and salvation would cause us to sing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saves a wretch like me.”
And people who believe and sing that, tend to be the people who walk more and more in the good works God has prepared for them.
I’ll invite the worship team up, and then I’ll give us some instructions about communion. Let’s pray.
“Dear heavenly Father…”
